Suspect in September Las Vegas murder arrested, held without bail

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a suspect in connection with a deadly September 2023 shooting.

According to an LVMPD arrest warrant, dispatchers received multiple calls about ten minutes after midnight on September 15, 2023, regarding a shooting on the 1600 block of Searles Avenue. Police and medical personnel responded to the scene and found a victim, Clayton Browne, lying in a parking lot adjacent to a building.

Brown had multiple apparent gunshot wounds and despite lifesaving measures, he was pronounced dead at the scene. A suspect, described as a Black adult male, was seen fleeing on foot, according to police.

LVMPD Homicide Section was notified and took over the investigation. Detectives conducted witness interviews and canvassed the area for video surveillance footage.

Detectives reported that Browne’s body was found lying in a cul-de-sac parking lot with apparent gunshot wounds to the head and face. The report added that there were signs of intervention around his body, as well as what appeared to be blood. Investigators also found a cell phone belonging to the victim.

Police interviewed a witness working at a taxi cab lot at the time of the shooting about four hours after it happened. The witness told investigators that he heard a female yell, “No, please don’t,” followed by two gunshots in rapid succession coming from the apartments east of his work.

He said he looked over a wall to the east, toward the apartments, and saw the suspect armed with a black handgun. He said that the suspect raised the firearm from his side at a 45-degree angle to the ground and fired an additional shot toward the ground. The witness said his view was obscured by parked vehicles.

The witness said that the suspect walked eastbound through the parking lot and “began to look around.” The witness ducked behind the wall, called police and exited his work’s parking lot.

He encountered two security guards and a woman who had also heard the shots. The four of them entered the apartment parking lot and saw the victim on the ground near trash dumpsters. The first suspect said that was the same area where saw the suspect fire the third gunshot toward the victim.

When police arrived, the initial witness returned to his work and reviewed video surveillance of the parking lot, but it did not capture video footage of the shooting. However, it did record audio, including yelling and three gunshots.

The suspect was described as a Black male, age 30-40, 5′8″-5′11″ tall, with a medium build and very short black hair, wearing a blue and white striped shirt.

Police interviewed a woman present at the time of the shooting.

“It should be noted, [she] was untruthful in her recollection of the incident she witnessed, however, after being confronted, she changed her statement and stated she was afraid for her life, which was why she was initially deceitful,” A Metro report stated. She told police she had been in a relationship with the victim for approximately four and a half years.

She said that Browne left their residence the day before the shooting and returned at approximately 10 p.m. While looking through a shared cell phone, the woman discovered a text conversation she believed was between Browne and a woman he previously had an affair with. The messages alluded to Browne paying about $400 to the other woman for her electric bill.

The witness said she confronted Browne about that, asking how he could afford this if he was unemployed. Browne reportedly admitted to selling crack cocaine.

After being confronted about the messages, Browne “did not want to talk about them” and the woman left the apartment, where she saw another man who was looking for Browne.

The pair then left the apartment and walked toward the parking lot, where the suspect reportedly pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot Browne once. The woman said she was afraid he would also try to shoot her, so she ran back to their apartment and locked the security screen door.

She told police she heard a second gunshot while running away. She tried to call 911 on her iPad but said she was unable to due to not having any cellular service. She added that she “began screaming hysterically for help,” asking neighbors to call the police.

She brought her iPad and returned to the scene of the shooting when she heard police sirens arriving at the scene.

One of the security guards told police that he had been working a 4 p.m. to midnight shift at a business nearby and was talking to his relief officer when they heard two gunshots nearby, followed by a third moments later. They went to check on the unarmed security officer at the apartment complex and encountered the witness from the taxi company.

The apartment security guard corroborated the story, explaining that he also heard two gunshots in rapid succession followed by a third. Video surveillance from a nearby business captured footage of a man matching the suspect’s description and clothing standing outside a store, talking on his cell phone, for approximately 12 seconds less than 30 minutes after the shooting.

A September 15 autopsy by the Clark County Coroner’s Office determined Browne’s cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death a homicide.

Detectives conducted more phone interviews with witnesses in the following days, determining that the suspect, identified as Shaun Lee, grew up with the victim and that they were “close friends” in Compton, CA. One witness said that Lee had recently been released from prison and re-connected with the victim.

A witness said that the two men became upset with each other while together at the apartment complex on September 13, 2023. Lee was “distraught” and left crying, returning later in possession of a revolver, according to the witness.

According to court documents, Lee was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on April 14. He is facing one charge of open murder with a deadly weapon and has a court appearance scheduled for April 17.

Lee is currently being held without bail.